Finished with the demo already. 1.6 hours to hit the turn cap according to steam's play time tracker. That's quite quick for the number of turns. Random thoughts:

It works. Performance was good, even. Not so happy with some of the visual aspects; the units are all ragged around the edges and so small in scale so they look very bad and it's hard to tell some of them apart. It won't let me turn on some basic options like AA for some reason I can't figure out; my video card is more than capable.

Why do I have to exit the entire game every time I change anything in the video/performance tab? Really? And I can't alter anything outside of the main menu? Really? So how am I meant to tailor performance?

Please stop forcing me to watch the intro videos. I appreciate you spent thousands on them but I'm not interested. Not the first time, and not the third time after I've been booted out of the game due to changing settings. Hammering escape should skip them!

City states are neat. The bonus they provide to allied civs is quite respectable. The missions they give add some low level optional goals, and can give some good rewards.

Combat's ok I guess. I didn't get to do much, just a bit of barb slaying. Burning down barb encampments is fun and worthwhile; it's the first time in any of these games that I haven't viewed it as a chore.

Wonders seem weaker, at least based on their descriptions. They are now more of a handy bonus than a potentially game winning boost.

Civics are nice. Saving up culture points to buy a later civ tree instead of an earlier one might be a strong tactic. Some look far more powerful than others. Slightly improved wonder construction versus easier to maintain relations with city states who provide me with extras resources and trade, as well as being a military ally, also saving me loads of gold because I don't need to give them handouts as often? Yeah, I'll take the latter thanks, even if I have to wait a bit for it to be offered.

Having everyone move 2 hexes by default is nice. No more 1 tile per turn dawdling.

Demo map's so small that there wasn't anywhere to expand to by the time city states and the other civs were added. I squeezed in 2 cities and felt like I'd hit a dead end. I like to have fewer cities, yes, but I hate feeling crowded. Definitely need to play on larger maps!

I like the Alexander leader diplomacy screen. Can't say why. He's ... neat. Bismark and Augustus were a bit boring.

Music is ok, all very easy to ignore. Nothing to rival boba yetu.

Which reminds me - the main menu is underwhelming after civ 4's view of earth from space plus boba yetu. That menu felt epic. This one is something left over from Bioshock minus the water damage.

The advisors aren't much use IMO. I selected the civ veteran level and they still kept telling me idiot level stuff instead of giving useful advice. I know that food makes a city grow, gah!

Can you please stop dumping tundra and desert all over me, please? I always get a tonne of tundra and desert tiles around my starting position in this series. If it's not that then it's a tonne of jungle instead. It's be nice to start out with half decent land for once, like most other people seem to do in the AARs they post.

Aside from that, the main impression is that it's a different game to civ 4. It won't replace it; I shall probably end up with both on my HD. It felt quite similar to Civ:Rev with its fast turns, lack of stacks, and smaller map.

Preordered. Once I'm on a bigger map without the limitations of the demo I'll like it more. I won't play the demo again.